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Migrant camp on French coast grows more permanent

Police officers blocked migrants during a demonstration in Calais, France, on Friday.Emilio Morenatti/Associated Press

CALAIS, France — The kitchen is a rustic grill under a tarpaulin in a fetid-smelling camp teeming with migrants — but for Zubair Nazari it means survival.

The teen, who ended up in this port city after a perilous escape from the Taliban, sticks with a group of fellow Afghans who do their best to recreate the tastes of home — a stew of eggs, onions, and tomatoes
— amid a stretch of squalor known as ‘‘the jungle.’’

‘‘We don’t eat like this every day,’’ said Nazari of the simple meal that was, in fact, a special treat cooked up for visitors. ‘‘The jungle is not a place for humans. It’s just for animals.’’

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An estimated 2,500 migrants are at the wind-swept camp surrounded by sand dunes that sprang up in early April when a state-approved day center for migrants was opened nearby. Unlike the others, this refuge far from the Calais city center — and more than a two-hour walk to the Channel tunnel — has mushroomed into a veritable village.

A mosque, church, and myriad shops, all built by migrants from plastic tarp and plywood, convey a sense of people settling in.

It’s a sign that, while most migrants are desperate to leave Calais, they appear increasingly resigned to the long haul in a city that is groaning under the strain of the migrant load.

Maya Konforti of Auberge des Migrants — Migrants’ Shelter — an NGO that helps supply food, tents, and blankets, says the camp’s building binge is due in part to its far-flung location, with no nearby grocery stores. But another reason is that some 30 percent of the camp population is seeking political asylum in France — and these people know they are in for a prolonged wait.

Squalor is the only constant between this new ‘‘jungle’’ and the makeshift encampments bulldozed by authorities. ‘‘There is no water, no food, no clothing,’’ Nazari said. ‘‘Where are the human rights?’’

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Piles of garbage putrefy in the sun. The rare spigots of water and a line of portable toilets are difficult to access for many living at the site. One migrant said he last washed his pants in Hungary, weeks ago.

Yet this appears to be the place where France’s government is encouraging migrants to huddle, out of sight for most Calais residents and from the Channel tunnel. For the first time since the 2002 destruction of a huge migrant camp outside Calais, Konforti said, ‘‘the government says, ‘Go there. You will be tolerated.’ ’’

Vincent Cochetel, Europe director for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, on Friday deplored the ‘‘appalling’’ conditions in the camp and called for ‘‘proper reception centers.’’

Fear follows migrants fleeing war, famine, human rights abuses, or poverty — and pervades the camp.

Zubair has been in Calais for a month, and cannot shake his fear of the Taliban. He said threatening letters from the Afghan militants drove him to leave his studies and his country.

‘‘My life was in danger in Afghanistan,’’ he said. He refused to provide details, but some other Afghan residents in the camp said they left for similar reasons, and remain fearful of being targeted inside the ‘‘jungle.’’

‘‘We will feel safe in England,’’ said Zubair. ‘‘Maybe when we pass to England the fear will go away from us.’’

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Calais is a necessary evil for migrants trying to reach Britain, which for many has become a kind of promised land. They believe the country wholeheartedly welcomes newcomers, and that living standards there are the best in Europe. It is a notion the British government is trying to dispel.

One Afghan, Khan Tarakhil, is proof that Britain’s arms are hardly wide open. At 14, he sneaked into Britain on a ferry, hiding in a truck loaded with boxes of biscuits. He spent seven years in Manchester, only to be refused political asylum when he was no longer a minor — forcing him into a life in hiding.

At 24, unable to apply for asylum elsewhere under European rules, he is trying to sneak back to Britain ‘‘to open my case again.’’

On Wednesday night, ‘‘I got over the last fence, dropped down, then the dogs came and they stopped me,’’ Tarakhil said, referring to the dogs used by some security units as part of the effort to block migrants.